HILLSBOROUGH — What happens when a high school teacher, a sugar artist and a fashion designer pool their talents to create a massive edible display to compete for the top prize on The Food Network's "Sugar Dome?"

When that teacher is Hillsborough High School art teacher Veronique de Groot, they win.

Each week the Sugar Dome assembles three teams consisting of a cake designer, sugar artist and an artist from a different medium and gives them six hours to concoct a confection based on a different theme. De Groot appeared on the show which aired on Dec. 30. The theme of the episode was "We're Off To See The Wizard."

The art teacher, who doubles as a baker, was the team's cake sculptor. She and her team constructed an edible 7-foot by 7-foot cake of Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion sleeping in the poppy field with the yellow brick road running through it.

De Groot has been teaching for seven years and took up baking seriously four years ago. "It was a way for me to still create art and keep my hands busy," said de Groot. She commuted from her home in Milford to Manhattan to take baking classes and eventually graduated from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan.

Today, in addition to her teaching duties, de Groot runs her own specialty cake business, Very Unique Cakes.

"I'm a terrible cook, but I've always been able to bake because it's very precise," said de Groot. "I've always loved baking so I took it to the next level."

The team split the top prize of $15,000. It is a secret that de Groot has had to keep since last summer, when the show was taped. "It's been a secret I've had to sit on so long, I'm glad I can actually talk about it," said de Groot. "It's awesome."

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